I booked a rental car for Budapest yesterday using a reputable online service. Several red flags led me to follow up with a phone call. I wasn’t sure I could cross international borders. I needed to know more about insurance; when I clicked on the fine print, I was asked in which state I was requesting extra insurance. Below the list of choices, I was warned that extra insurance was not available for Texas. What about Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, and the Czech Republic???

The customer service rep was knowledgable and did her absolute best to find me a rental plan that fit my needs. And, of course, the minute I got off the phone, I received a survey asking about the service I received.

Wait! That’s it? All they care about is their customer service rep? They don’t care that I just wasted a couple of hours and don’t have a car I can drive to Poland because their online sales process is so inadequate?

If I use this survey to express my frustration, which many probably do, a totally helpful employee could lose her job!

Meanwhile, in case you can’t tell, the survey has made me madder than the car rental problems.

My recently acquired healthcare service plan deserves to be whacked as well. The insurance company sent a letter explaining how eager they were to be awesome and told me to expect a survey. I was thrilled that they cared. I was glad I’d have the opportunity to tell them about the 10 months I’d spent trying to resolve a billing issue.

But did they ask? No! They wanted to know how many times I visited a doctor and whether I smoked! Despite four pages of questions, they didn’t give me a single opportunity to complain about their service! I would have seized any open ended comment field to explain their failings. There wasn’t one.

Customer satisfaction surveys are ubiquitous these days.  And most are making matters worse, not better.

But this isn’t rocket science! To get it right, to gain useful information, and to increase customer loyalty rather then destroy it, you must:

1. Serve the customer, not yourself

A survey that asks for ratings and allows no comments is self-serving. If you care about customers, you need to hear what they have to say.

2. Get out of your silo and examine the full customer experience

A survey that targets one phone call – one tiny sliver of the customer’s experience – misses the boat and increases customer frustration. You need to consider the full customer experience from the first to the most recent contact.

3. Be honest about your intentions

A customer satisfaction survey has no business asking about smoking habits unless the customer purchased smoking cessation services. If you want to survey people about their personal habits, don’t call it a customer satisfaction survey.

4. Seek information, not statistics

By asking for a simple numeric response to service delivered, you will receive nothing but a report card. While that might help you punish employees or beef up your marketing, it will teach you absolutely nothing that will help you improve.

5. Improve!

When I fill out surveys, it is either because I am thrilled or I want to see improvement. I don’t do it because I have nothing better to do with my time! I don’t do it because they are fun! I do it because I care. And nothing is more annoying than to discover how little the company cares! Don’t ask for people’s precious time unless you intend to take action and make real changes to improve their experience.